The Muggle Tube
by Freedom Rhodes
Summary: Willow is planning a surprise for Severus... *Completed*
1. Late!

[A/N: Warning number one: I've taken a few liberties with the HP universe. So if you are a purist, you might want to back away. Warning number two: This is complete and utter fluff. If fluff is something you aren't into, I'd quickly and without hesitation back away. Warning number three: If you are still here at this point, I'll award 50 points to the house of your choice. Cheers!]  
  
  
  
"Where have you been?"  
  
Willow jumped, startled, but didn't turn around right away. She had just stepped out the fireplace, traveling thanks to Floo powder and feeling a little dizzy because of it. Her errand had taken longer then expected.  
  
She tried to school her features before she let Severus Snape see her face or he would ruin the surprise. Her face always gave it away and during their last two years together, he had become an expert on Willow mind reading. Quite creepy really.  
  
"What?" she said in a small voice, very innocent like and stalling for time.  
  
Snape was sitting in a high backed leather chair and partially hidden by the shadows cast by the waning sunlight. As usual, he was completely dressed in black and blended way too well with the dark. The only thing missing to complete the picture would have been a long haired white cat on his lap for his long fingers to lazily pet.  
  
He leaned forward, glaring at her from across the room. "You know what I said."  
  
"Shouldn't you be in your lab getting ready to leave?" Willow was finally able to look at him with a somewhat straight face.  
  
"I am ready to leave. I have been ready to leave for an hour now and have been waiting for you ever since." Severus grounded out through clenched teeth. His nails were ready to puncture the leather on the armrests of his chair; his frustration was growing as he watched her casually place her cloak on the accustomed hook.  
  
"Well, I have a million things to get packed. Not to mention the books I'll need over the next few months and the research papers and my clothes . . ." Willow trailed off, bouncing back and forth through the room as if it was a fire sale in Diagon Alley. ". . . And I also promised Minerva that I'd see her before we take off and I know you want to get an early start so I promise it to be a quick visit and I-"  
  
Snape shot from his chair, grabbing Willow and startling her into silence. Usually he enjoyed her bouts of babbling but there had been an hour where his only companion was his imagination. "Willow. Where. Were. You?" He had her shoulders in his grip, not allowing her to escape without an answer.  
  
This time she could look him in the face, only giving away a little ray of a smile, "It's a surprise."  
  
"What confounded reason would make you think that leaving school grounds alone is a good idea?"  
  
"That reason would be a surprise."  
  
Snape was still holding her in his death grip, eyes, unblinking, demanding an answer he could live with. The man gave new definition to the word intense. "Tell me," he warned, willing to stand here all night.  
  
"Sev, what's wrong?"  
  
"Answer my question."  
  
"No, and you know I can be just as stubborn as you are so you know I won't give. What is wrong?"  
  
Snape dropped his arms, started to turn, "Nevermind." He stated, still angry.  
  
"I don't think so, mister. Why are you so freaked?" She had him by the front of the robes and was now the one not letting him get away.  
  
"Will," he gave a growling warning.  
  
"Sev," she answered back in much the same tone.  
  
"Why do you think?!" He exploded wrenching himself from her grasp. "I come back here, expecting to find you, and surprise you are not! So I do a locating spell and surprise again, you are not on school grounds! Dumbledore is in meetings at the Ministry and with the students gone for the summer, who would notice if something snuck in here to drag you off! You will have to excuse me if the word surprise does not ease my concern."  
  
After his tirade, Snape looked down his nose at Willow, staring her down and daring her to respond. They were barely a foot apart and he was surprised to see that she was shaking so hard, he started to feel a twinge of remorse for being so harsh.  
  
That was until she hit him up side the arm.  
  
"What was that for?!"  
  
"Oh-oh-oh! I'm so mad at you, I could spit! I was feeling all guilty for worrying you and then you had to go and be all insulting. What kind of witch do you take me for?!" She punctuated her statement by poking him in the chest with her finger. "Allow myself to be drug off without putting up a fight?" Poke. "Can't take care of myself?" Poke. "Helpless without the men-folk around to protect me, am I?"  
  
Snape captured her hand before her finger could take another stab at him, "Now Will-"  
  
"Don't 'Now Willow' me! If something bad had happened, I'm positive the whole school would have known about it, at full capacity or not. And furthermore-"  
  
This time, it was Willow who was cut off in mid-sentence. Snape swiftly pulled her into his arms and captured her lips with his own. They kissed until they were both breathless, clutching each as if to part would mean to be lost in the darkness forever, each other's lifeline.  
  
"That was so unfair." Willow whispered, not forgetting why she was mad at him but unable hold onto any of her anger.  
  
"I was worried," Snape muttered, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, pulling her closer.  
  
"I know." Being this close to him always made her come undone. The first thing about Severus that had attracted Willow was his voice, of course. He had a voice that made her skin vibrate, her down lows tight. But the thing she was addicted to was his scent. It was smoky, spicy, and sinful all rolled into one. She couldn't get enough of it and was sure that if she could bottle it, every woman on the planet would thank her. But she didn't share. "Truce?"  
  
"Truce."  
  
"Uum, Sev?" She looked up, not wanting to ruin the moment but. "If we get any more distracted, we won't be leaving this room for three days. And if I remember correctly, you have a timetable that must be followed to the second. An extremely important timetable, highly detailed and color coordinated, planetary alignments were taken into consideration."  
  
"Are you mocking me?"  
  
"Me mock you? Never. But I am the one who will have to live with a cranky potions master if one of his delicate experiments goes sour." Willow bounced up and lightly planted a kiss to his cheek before bounding away to continue packing.  
  
"How many times do I have to tell you," Snape sighed and sat back down to watch the red headed witch gather her belongings with endless energy. "Complicated, not delicate. You make it sound as if I work with flowers."  
  
Her only response was a giggle at his disdain. For that, he decided not to help with a simple little spell to make the packing go much faster. Atleast, not for a little while.  
  
End of Part One 


	2. Surprise!

[A/N: Thanks go to Jinni, Rose, Alienbeing, Jeanne, Sonya, KaylsDaeAlMon, Aiyana, Chang Jessica, Caissie-Bear and Sweetie Pie for the reviews. 'preciate it. House standing so far: 100 points for Slytherin, a big goose egg for Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. This might turn out to be Slytherin's year for the house cup. grin

A/N2: I haven't added a chapter, just ended this story. Really hate loose ends lying about and chances are, I won't be back to update. Sorry. Trying to kick my fanfic addiction.]

*********************************  
* Three Hours Later *  
*********************************  
* One Hour & 18 Min. Behind Schedule *  
*********************************

No roads led to or from the cottage and it would take at least three days to hike in from the nearest point of civilization. If an unluckily lost muggle happened to come across it, it was charmed to look like a big, ugly boulder. The poor soul would then immediately realize they were an idiot for losing their way and magically find itself fifteen minutes from where they had entered the forest. Unsurprisingly, the woods were rumored to be haunted. 

The truly remarkable aspect about the cottage was found once you passed through the front door. From the outside, it looked like any modest summer home, nestled in the far corner of the only meadow of an extremely dark forest. But on the inside, it had enough room to fit a small army. The house featured a half a dozen bedrooms, three baths, study, library, dinning room, kitchen, but most notably, Snape's pride and joy, a dungeon. The summer months were his time to experiment on the potions he had planned all winter. Complicated and dangerous concoctions which he didn't want anywhere near prying eyes or greedy little fingers.

With a small pop, Willow and Severus apparated onto the front steps of Snape's summer cottage. They took a moment to look around and take in the quiet surroundings; everything looked exactly as they had left together at the end of the summer last year. 

"You're not mad that we are behind schedule, are you?" Willow gave him the sad puppy dog look.

"No."

"No, as in you are not mad or no, you will never forgive me because the creozote has eaten through the monogrammed leather case and the pink azearc mixed with grey boxial and we will now have given birth to monster gremlins which will damage the natural habitat?"

Smirk. "The Ministry still hasn't forgiven you for last year."

"Hey, I said I was sorry. What more do they want, blood?"

"I suspect they will forget once they finish dealing with the paperwork."

"You still didn't answer my question." Willow was still feeling a little apprehensive waiting for Severus' reaction. Last year was a disaster and she had promised to try to do better this time around.

Severus knew that every once of his being should feel guilty for deceiving her. He was a bad, bad man. Always the one to consider the importance of learning from past mistakes, he gave his love a slightly altered schedule which meant that they were actually an hour ahead of schedule. 

"I think we can come up with something to make it up to me."

"Oh really."

*********************************  
* Three Days Later *  
*********************************

"Willow?" Severus stopped short when he spotted what looked like a big box in the middle of his study. All he could do was stare at it, hoping at some point it would all start making sense. 

"Um, hmmh?" Willow happened by, absently thumbing through a couple of books she wanted to store on his bookshelves. They had put off unpacking the unimportant stuff and she had forgotten about her little surprise.

"What is this?"

"What is what?" She looked up, noticing his tense posture. He was pointing at the squat, ugly box, scowling as if afraid it was going to attack. Laying down her books on the closest desk, she walked up behind him and wrapped an arm around his waist. "That's the surprise. Surprise!"

"That is the surprise?" Severus said, still not understanding but finally taking his eyes off it long enough to give Willow a pained look. "And to think, I thought you were afraid to tell me that you had bought a puppy."

Willow's eyes light up at the idea. "Oh, can we get a puppy?"

"No." He still couldn't look away from the hideous device. It wasn't moving or making any sounds but it was just so alien to everything in his world. "You still haven't explained what this … thing … is."

"Oh, it's a television."

"No, it isn't."

Willow gave him a sharp look wondering if this was the moment she had been dreading since they gotten together. For the last two years, she had she had added to his stress level, taxed his patience and generally kept him in a state of 'expect the unexpected'. This might be the moment when he finally snapped and was ready for the psychiatric ward. She couldn't believe he would question her knowledge of anything muggle.

"Yeah, it is." 

"Remember last year when you forced me to wear muggle clothing and we went into London. I saw television. They were big and black and loud and flashing."

"Mmmm … I remember you looking really good in those pants."

"Focus. Please." Snape said, rolling his eyes and resisting the urge to shake her.

She giggled a little at his impatience. "This one is older than those we saw in the city, give or take 20 years. It has been in my parent's basement for years and I had Xan ship it over."

"Why would you want to do that?" he remarked hastily.

Willow looked away, not knowing how to explain. They never talked much about her old life, not wanting to dwell too much on the pain she had left behind. Hogwarts and Severus was her new life and her old life and new one usually didn't mix very well. She shrugged, stuck on the words.

Snape pulled her over to the sofa, making her sit down and look at him. "Why?" he tried again hoping this time it didn't sound as if he thought her to be a raving lunatic. 

"I just thought it would be nice. Some rainy night, we could snuggle in front of the TV and watch a movie. I sort of miss sharing that with someone."

He sat back further, silently taking in what she had said. Sometimes he forgot that she had lived as a muggle most of her life. She had immersed herself so thoroughly into the wizarding world, acclimating so quickly and effortlessly, it was difficult to grasp how much she had given up and left behind. Also, it didn't help that he came from a long line of wizards which seemed to genetically disdain anything muggle. 

But that didn't mean that he didn't understand how lonely it could be to give up everything you know. From the outside, they might look like an odd match but experience made them more alike than either cared to admit. Only for his little red headed witch would he try to keep an open mind.

"How does this work exactly?" Snape sighed, seeing the hope brighten in her eyes and instantaneously knowing that he would be sitting through at least one of those movie things she mentioned.

"Oh, easy. I picked up a region free DVD player and Xander was kind enough to send over some his favorites and some of mine. Since the TV is so old, I had to buy a converter and that will mean that the quality of the picture won't be as pristine as a higher end digital model. But I figured that the circuits might be a little temperamental compared to a good old fashioned picture tube." 

Easy was not the word Snape would have used. Willow continued on describing the wiring and some of the problems she had in making it all work. He didn't understand half of what she said. "But won't it need some sort of power?" 

Willow smirked a bit before looking away and mumbling something he couldn't quite make out. Snape had to ask her to repeat what she had said. "I magic'ed it."

"You charmed a muggle artifact? That goes against the laws set forth by the Ministry of Magic."

"Well, sort of."

"What do you mean 'sort of'?"

Willow smiled, looking slyly at him. "Last year's parent teacher day. When we weren't talking about toasters, I spent half the day with Arthur Weasley learning about his job. Turns out, the law is a little vague."

Severus was speechless, not sure how to respond.

"Sev, we are in the middle of nowhere and it isn't like we can get an electrician out here. It is just a little spell and I didn't charm it to do something it normally won't normally do." Willow pleaded, hoping he wouldn't make this a big deal. She should have known that he would focus on the details.

"Why does it have to be in my study?" He threw the contraption a look as if suggesting that he still didn't trust its presence in the room.

"This room has the big comfy couch."

He scowled at that, not quite understanding. She moved closer to him, molding herself to his side and using one hand to play with a button on his shirt. "You know, for cuddling. Snuggling. General positions of closeness." A finger slipped inside, lightly making contact with skin.

Any resistance against this whole television business flew out the window. He could smell her faint perfume and if she kept delicately touching him like this, he would likely agree to dye his hair pink for the next Welcoming Feast. "Fine. One movie."

"Two?"

"One."

"Okay, one movie but you have to wear the muggle pants."

"Why?"

Willow smirked, trailed a few kisses up his cheek and stopped by his ear to whisper, "Remember that night in London?" 

Severus shivered, remembering all too well. "I think that can be arranged."

*********************************  
* The End *  
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End file.
